Thus did Irish monks contribute to the conversion of Great Britain and its many distant islands.  They built up the faith by their holy lives, their preaching, and their enthusiasm, and wisely provided for its perpetuation by educating a native clergy and by the founding of monastic institutions.

They were not yet satisfied, so they turned towards other lands to bring to other peoples the glad tidings of salvation.

Gaul:  In 590 St. Columbanus, a monk of Bangor in Ireland, accompanied by twelve brethren, arrived in France, having passed through Britain.  After the example of St. Columcille in Caledonia, they traveled to the court of Gontram, king of Burgundy, in order to secure his help and protection.  During the course of the journey they preached to the people, and all were impressed with their modesty, patience, and devotion.  At that epoch Gaul was sadly in need of such missionaries, for, owing partly to the invasion of barbarians and partly to remissness on the part of the clergy, vice and impiety everywhere prevailed.  Columbanus, because of his zeal, sanctity, and learning, was well fitted for the task that lay before him.  One of his early works in Burgundy was the founding of the monastery of Luxeuil, which became the parent of many other monasteries founded either by himself or by his disciples.  Many holy men came from Ireland to join the community, and so numerous did the monks of Luxeuil become that separate choirs were formed to keep up perpetual praise—­the “laus perennis”.  But Columbanus did not remain at Luxeuil.  In his strict uncompromising preaching he spared not even kings, and he preferred to leave his flourishing monastery rather than pass over in silence the vices of the Merovingians.  He escaped from the malice of Brunehaut, and, being banished from Burgundy, made his way to Neustria, and thence to Metz.  Full of zeal, he resolved to preach the faith to the pagans along the Rhine, and with this purpose set out with a few of his followers.  They proceeded as far as the Lake of Zurich, and finally established themselves at Bregentz, on the Lake of Constance.

By this time his disciple St. Gall had learned the Alemannian dialect, which enabled him to push forward the work of evangelization.  But Columbanus felt that he was called to labor in other lands while vigor remained to him, so, bidding his favorite follower farewell, he crossed the Alps and arrived at Milan in northern Italy.  King Agilulph and his queen, Theodelinda, gave the Irish abbot a reverent and kind welcome.  His zeal was still unspent, and he worked much for the conversion of the Lombard Arians.  Here he founded, between Milan and Genoa, the monastery of Bobbio, which as a centre of knowledge and piety was long the light of northern Italy.  In this monastery he died in the year 615, but not before the arrival of messengers from King Clothaire, inviting him to return to Luxeuil, as his enemies were now no more.  But he could not go; all he asked was protection for his dear monks at Luxeuil.